Hector and the Search for Happiness. Francois Lelord

that was true, but often people from countries like Hector’s didn’t really understand his religion, which they adapted to suit themselves – rather like the Chinese restaurants in Hector’s city which didn’t serve real Chinese food. But the old monk felt that, although in some ways it was a pity, it didn’t really matter because it could still help people to be less worried and kinder to others. On the other hand, he wondered why people from Hector’s country were so interested in his religion when they had many old and perfectly good religions of their own. Perhaps they’d have been better off taking more of an interest in them; they’d have had a better chance of understanding them properly.

      Hector said that it was very complicated, that perhaps people preferred the old monk’s religion because there were no bad memories attached to it and therefore it offered hope: people believed that his religion was the one that would really work.

      In any event, it seemed to work for the old monk, because Hector had never seen such a contented person who laughed so much, but not in a mocking way. And yet he was very old, and his life couldn’t always have been much fun.

      Hector remembered that there had been a time when the people who ruled the largest part of China had decided that monks were not useful people, and then some terrible things had happened, things too terrible even to mention. And the old monk came from that part of China, and must have experienced all that, and yet it didn’t seem to have stopped him from being happy.

      Hector would have very much liked the old monk to reveal the secret of his happiness.

      The old monk looked at him, laughing, and said, ‘Your journey is a very good idea. When you’ve reached the end of it, come back and see me.’

       HECTOR MAKES A DISCOVERY

      THAT evening, Hector went to wait for Édouard at his office before going out to dinner. It was Sunday, but Édouard was at the office because he had to finish a piece of work for the following day. He was going to show a very important man how to carry out a merger, and he wanted to do this ahead of another Édouard from another bank who wanted to show the same very important man how to do the same thing. And this very important man in turn wanted to carry out the merger ahead of another very important man who wanted to do the same thing. Hector had understood that in business everything was always a bit of a race whereas in psychiatry it wasn’t really like that, you just had to be careful not to let your patients talk too much, otherwise you’d be late for the next ones, and they wouldn’t like it.

      Hector searched for Édouard’s building among the huge modern towers stretching all the way down to the sea. There wasn’t a beach, only quaysides where huge ships were moored, or building sites where new towers were going up.

      The cars drove underneath, which was convenient as Hector was able to walk between the tall towers without any risk of being run over. He arrived at Édouard’s very beautiful, shiny tower. It looked like a giant razor blade. As he was a little early, he decided to have another coffee, and he was lucky because there was another big modern glass-walled café.

      This time the waitresses weren’t very pretty, and Hector was relieved because too much beauty can be exhausting. Indeed, Hector considered being so sensitive to female beauty something of a handicap. And although he knew he wasn’t the only one who suffered from it, he hoped that one day he’d get over it. But, as you can see, he hadn’t got off to a very good start.

      He rang Édouard, who seemed pleased to hear from him, but he hadn’t finished working yet. He told Hector to continue waiting for him in the café and he’d meet him there.